How to save your supplements from the three thieves of potency

When dark spots develop in supplement capsules, you know that can’t be good. But this is a common problem when supplements are exposed to one or more of the three thieves of potency: temperature, humidity, and light.

Fortunately, there’s an easy step you can take to control those thieves. And you’ll not only avoid dark spots, you’ll also be sure to get the very highest potency out of your daily supplements.

Stop, thief!

The one place in the home that’s specifically designed to store medicines–namely, the medicine cabinet–turns out to be the worst place to store drugs and supplements.

Humidity is the primary culprit. After a shower, your bathroom is as damp and muggy as Miami after a good hard July rain. And because humidity like that can be penetrating, Perdue University researchers conducted an experiment to see how vitamin C holds up under various temperature and relative humidity conditions.

The quick answer: Not so good.

High temperature and humidity (especially humidity) had significant effects on degradation of vitamin C supplements. And needless to say, with cold and flu season upon us, you want to get every bit of the potency from your daily C.

The Perdue team writes: “This research highlights the importance of considering phase transformations when constructing shelf life models and maintaining vitamin C in the solid state for enhanced stability.”

That’s a scientist’s way of saying, “Get the supps out of the bathroom–now!”

More specifically, it’s the water soluble vitamins that degrade when exposed to bathroom humidity. Here are the eight water-soluble:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin B1
• Vitamin B2
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B12
• Niacin
• Folate / Folic acid
• Pantothenic acid

Of course, a good multivitamin will contain all or most of those vitamins, so the multis have to leave the bathroom too, as do any pills in capsule form because they all contain powders.

So…where do you go after the bathroom?

The kitchen may seem like a logical choice because most supplements are taken with food, and that’s where the food is. But kitchen temperatures and humidity are often just as intense as they are in the bathroom.

The Perdue team suggests the bedroom is probably the best spot. And for some bedrooms that might be true. But even there you’ll get temperature swings. And if you use a humidifier, well…humidity follows.

My vote for best place to store and protect the potency of your supplements might seem a little bit odd, but hear me out…

If your linen closet isn’t in the bathroom, that’s the one spot in your home that probably maintains the lowest humidity and most even temperature year-round. And linen closets are dark, which is a plus because light is the third thief of supplement potency.

And there’s one more benefit. Sometimes–let’s face it, it happens–visitors to your home might be tempted to take a peek in the medicine cabinet when they use the bathroom. But what happens in the linen closet stays in the linen closet.

Sources:
“Influence of simultaneous variations in temperature and  relative humidity on chemical stability of two vitamin C forms and implications for shelf life models” Journal of  Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 58, No. 6, 4/24/10,  pubs.acs.org